LMP1-H
A fascinating battle continued to play out at the front of the field as the #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid continued to fight for supremacy.
With the track fully dry, Neel Jani continued his impressive pace leading the race until pitting and being replaced by Marc Lieb. This handed first place to the #2 Audi, while after 3hrs and 55mins, Benoît Tréluyer had handed over to Marcel Fässler to complete the race.
With 90-minutes of the 6 Hours of Circuit of Americas to go, the Swiss Audi driver led Lieb by 47 seconds and was starting to extend that gap.
In third place was Anthony Davidson in the Toyota TS 040 Hybrid, the British racer having taken over from Nicolas Lapierre and continued a fine recovery to climb up to third position just ahead of the #1 Audi.
The scene was set for a climactic finish with all to play for in Austin.
LMP1-L
Nick Heidfeld continued to lead the LMP1-L class in the #12 Rebellion Racing R-One-Toyota. The German continued his marathon stint and held 7th place overall.
The #13 Rebellion of Fabio Leimer, Dominik Kraihamer and Andrea Belicchi pitted with some damage to the front of the Toyota powered prototype. Leimer was at the wheel when trouble hit and the car was out of the running as the team worked on potential repairs to salvage some points.
LMP2
There was a battle royal raging in the LMP class with a four way fight for the lead. The #27 SMP Racing ORECA 03R-Nissan driven by Maurizio Mediani was fending off the No.47 KCMG before Tsugio Matsuda spun the Hong Kong-entered LMP2 while negotiating traffic.
There was no rest for Mediani though as Julien Canal continued to put pressure on him in the G-Drive Ligier JS P2-Nissan. A game of cat and mouse continued throughout with the pace of the two protagonists evenly matched. Contact between the two was made after 4hrs 16mins with Canal’s Ligier losing a lap after the car suffered damage to its front.
After delays in the rain-soaked second hour the Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX 03B-Honda, driven by Ryan Dalziel fought back and at the 4hr 30mins mark re-took the lead it had earlier held. Dalziel capitalised on the incident between Mediani and Canal to put the Patron Tequila backed team in to a solid position for the remaining 90-minutes of the race.
21:29:40 : Fassler leads by 42 seconds with 90 minutes left
21:25:38 : Lieb is now in #14 Porsche
21:24:55 : Leaders now lapping close to dry lap times
21:24:19 : Ligier #26 being repaired in garage
21:19:40 : Leader into pits Fassler retakes the lead
21:17:59 : ESM HPD takes 2nd in P2
21:17:24 : Oreca bounces over kerbs and suffers suspension damage
21:14:46 : Kristensen pits and Di Grassi takes over
21:12:02 : Fassler retakes 2nd from Kristensen
21:06:47 : Rebellion #13 into pits with damage to front
21:00:45 : Ligier #26 takes 2nd place in P2
21:00:02 : Spin for #47 KCMG Oreca
20:59:17 : Oreca #27 retakes lead in P2
20:57:16 : Fassler now in 2nd place #2 Audi
20:56:45 : Bernhard hands over to Hartley in #20
20:55:49 : Treluyer into pits Jani retakes the lead
20:53:08 : All P1 cars have now stopped 3 times
20:51:09 : Toyota #8 into pits Davidson takes over
20:47:11 : Ferrari #51 takes 3rd in GTE Pro from #97 Aston
20:40:57 : Fuel only for Porsche #14
20:39:47 : Treluyer retakes lead after Porsche #14 pits
20:36:53 : 1 minute stop and go penalty for #81 Ferrari after infringement under red flag
20:33:47 : Leaders still lapping about 6 seconds slower than in totally dry conditions
20:27:16 : Porsche #20 takes 5th place from #7 Toyota
20:20:04 : Audi #1 into pits for tyre change
20:17:43 : Lapierre takes 4th from Conway
20:15:26 : Porsche #91 takes 2nd in GTE Pro
20:09:53 : Porsche #92 takes lead in GTE Pro from #97 Aston
20:00:40 : Jani in Porsche #14 takes the lead
